The Jerusalem municipality gave the Wiesenthal Center a municipal parking lot in central Jerusalem on which to build the museum.
But in Jerusalem, a parking lot is rarely just a parking lot. Before it was turned into a four-story underground garage in the 1970s, the land had been a small part of a sprawling Muslim cemetery.
The cemetery fell out of use after the creation of Israel in 1948, but many of its graves are still visible, crumbling among trees in what has become the heart of the Jewish side of the city. Part of the cemetery is now known as Independence Park. Another part had been sold much earlier, in the 1930s, at the initiative of the top Muslim clergyman of Jerusalem, to become the renowned Palace Hotel.
The project's backers say they didn't know the lot contained graves when they got it, and cite the Palace Hotel precedent and a 1964 ruling by a top Muslim cleric permitting construction on the land. But this has not mollified critics, who charge that nothing justifies the desecration of graves.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/23/ap/world/mainD8KALPRG0.shtml]
What this is is a legal fight between those who are extremely religious (note both Ultra-Orthodox Jews and Muslims are fighting the building of the center) and those who feel some pragmatism must be made with reasonable due given to sensitivities. The main irony is that the fight concerns the Wiesnthal Center. The bad part is that people are assuming this is a case where Jews are once again trying to put something over the Muslims which is not the case.
Al-Aqsa's Suleiman rejected this analysis. "This is 100 percent a question of religion," he said.
He and the museum's other Muslim opponents have found unexpected allies: Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who aren't known for their sympathy for Arab causes but who care about preserving graves.
"The desecration of the graves of people of any faith can't be justified," said Meir Porush, an Orthodox legislator. "The dead have the right to remain undisturbed."
Both Italy and Greece suffer the similar type of issues when trying to construct new buildings. The fact that the Israeli court is adjudicating this and has previously made both parties go through Arbitration shows some significant effort in trying to find an acceptable solution.
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